


Five Times Danny Thought About Religion

by misslucy21



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-12
Updated: 2013-02-12
Packaged: 2017-11-29 00:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/680599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misslucy21/pseuds/misslucy21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny has Issues when it comes to religion. It's understandable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Danny Thought About Religion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ariadnes_string](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariadnes_string/gifts).



> Many thanks to Hagar for word wrangling and subject matter hand holding!

1.  
Danny wasn’t old enough to have witnessed the first fight among both sets of his grandparents and his parents about which religion would have precedence in raising him, because he’d only been two days old and they were arguing about whether he was going to have a _bris_ or if he was going to be baptized. But he knows all the particulars of the argument, because it was still being rehashed and used in other such arguments until his Nonna Williams passed away in 2003.

(This used to mortify him as a kid-- no one wants their foreskin, or lack thereof, to be a main topic of conversation among their family members)

This argument had a two part solution on the part of his parents. His mother had simply allowed the doctors to do the circumcision in the hospital as was customary and his father pointed out that he hadn’t been to Mass in three years, except for his sister’s wedding, and besides, they’d gotten married at City Hall to avoid the question of raising the kids Catholic, so what would be the point of baptizing the kid anyway? When he was older, he could make his own decision.

2.  
The summer before he turned 13, the question was, would he have a Bar Mitzvah or a Confirmation? That led to the revelation that his Nonna’d had him (and his three siblings) baptized without his parents knowing, since when asked if he’d be Confirmed, his father said he’d need to be baptized first. Danny’s father almost put a hole in the wall when he’d discovered what his mother had done. The recriminations heaped upon his mother from his Bubbe and Zayde were epic, even though she’d had _no_ previous knowledge of the situation. The argument raged for months and only ended when his parents refused to attend Thanksgiving dinner with _either_ set of grandparents.

Danny felt awful about making everyone angry. But, he was perceptive enough to realize that choosing either one would just make it worse. When his parents asked _him_ what he wanted, he said he didn’t want either. They said that was fine with them; he could always change his mind later.

Three years later Matty chose to have a Bar Mitzvah, and they asked Danny again. He’d already decided he didn’t need God. Particularly not a God that made the people he loved fight so bitterly.

3.  
Zayde died his junior year of college. Danny came home for the burial. He wanted to beg off the Shiva, but when he saw how difficult everything was for Mom, he stayed. He was excruciatingly polite to the family members who generally preferred to pretend he didn’t exist.

At one point, he escaped upstairs after his mother’s cousin Sarah criticized both his college choice _and_ his criminal justice major. He was looking at the family portraits on the wall, when he heard a voice behind him.

“He loved you very much, you know.” He turned to find Bubbe smiling sadly at him. “He was proud of you.”

“I thought he was...disappointed in me,” Danny bit his lip.

“We were disappointed that you were not brought up Jewish. You are the oldest, it was hard. But it never meant we didn’t love you and weren’t proud of the man you are becoming.”

“Even though I don’t believe in God?”

“Many people don’t believe in God. They struggle with the idea that God could let us suffer so much.” She patted his shoulder. “As long as you don’t deny who you are, I will be satisfied.”

“I won’t,” he promised.

“Good.”

4.  
When Rachel was pregnant, she thought they should discuss religion. Danny was surprised; she’d never mentioned church. She knew that his family was mixed-- none of his grandparents were subtle. But he’d thought she knew that _he_ didn’t believe.

“I just wondered if you wanted to celebrate Jewish holidays alongside the Christian ones,” she explained.

Danny closed his eyes. “Look, okay, yes, technically speaking, I’m Jewish because my mom is. But I don’t...I haven’t celebrated Passover, or anything else since I was a kid. I wouldn’t even know how. Besides, she won’t be considered Jewish anyway, because _you’re_ not. It doesn’t matter what I am. If I was anything.”

“Oh.”

“I don’t care. If you want her to be baptized, then I’m not going to stand in the way.”

“What will your grandparents say?”

“They’ve given up on me by now.”

“My mother will expect a Christening.”

“Then, we’ll have one.”

“That’s settled then.” Rachel looked relieved that it wasn’t going to be a fight. Danny squelched a flare of anger -- what if it _had_ been important to him-- but it was fleeting. He was not putting his daughter through that kind of stress. Ever.

5.  
“You were an ass today.”

Danny blinked at Kono. “What?”

“At the ceremony ground.”

“Oh. That.”

“Yeah, _that_.” She glared. “I’m not religious, but Chin’s part of the family _is_. He won’t say he was insulted, but he was.”

“What makes you think Steve didn’t already point that out?”

“That’s work. This’s _ohana_.”

“Right.” Danny shook off the homesickness that always arose when Chin or Kono talked about family. “Look, I don’t do religion, okay?”

“Who said you had to? Not believing doesn’t mean you don’t have to have respect.”

“Yeah, because that always works so well,” he snapped. Kono raised an eyebrow. “My mom’s family is Jewish and my dad’s is Catholic. They were not exactly mutually respectful.”

“Played tug-of-war with you, huh?”

“You could say that.”

“So you told them to go fuck themselves.”

“Not in those exact words.”

She pursed her lips. “That sucks, but it doesn’t excuse...”

He raised his hands in surrender. “I’ll apologize to Chin. And try to keep my mouth shut from now on.”

Kono snorted at the last part, but nodded. “You know, being angry hurts you more than it hurts them.”

“Speaking from experience?”

She smiled slightly. “You could say that.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Picture credits:
> 
> 1: This is apparently a baby photo of Scott Caan. I'd believe it. [Scott Caan Daily](http://scottcaan-daily.livejournal.com/48602.html)  
> 2: Teenager/young adult Scott Caan [Hawaii Five-0 Online](http://hawaiifive0online.net/tag/young-scott-caan/)  
> 3: Scott and James Caan at an event in New York [NY Daily News](http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.95981.1356022631!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/gallery_635/james-scott-caan.jpg)  
> 4:Scott Caan and Teilor Grubbs on the beach behind the scenes [Hawaii Five-0 online](http://hawaiifive0online.net/photo-gallery/behind-the-scenes-2/behind-the-scenes/)  
> 5: Season 2 Cast Blessing on set[Moonbell Photos](http://s511.beta.photobucket.com/user/moonbell_photos/media/FTR-HAWAII-50-BLESSING-20.jpg.html)


End file.
